Ordering a Tesla in the UK via Business Contract Hire / Lease

As I couldn't find much online in the way of details for the process of ordering a Tesla via business contract hire (leasing as a limited company) in the UK I thought I'd document my own personal experience. Your experience may be different but at least you'll know what to expect at each stage after watching the below video or reading this article.

Configuring your Tesla 

Firstly, you going to want to decide on the model and the spec of your Tesla

using Tesla's online configurator. 

Now that you've decided on the model and spec, the next thing to do is flex the mileage and the term of the lease. Obviously, the longer the term the lower the monthly cost but it also means you’re locked in for longer. In case you haven't seen it yet, I have an article with a spreadsheet that compares buying outright versus leasing versus PCP which you can also use to compare your leasing deals.

Placing the order

When it finally comes to pulling the trigger, don't forget to use a referral code to get 1,000 supercharger miles as I don't believe it's possible to add one after you've ordered. If you don't have a referral code, feel free to use mine which will also help me out with an additional 1,000 supercharger miles too - https://ts.la/rick45427 .

At this stage, to secure your Tesla, all you will need to do is pay a £100 deposit which you will likely pay on your business bank card. You should receive a confirmation email with the receipt for the £100 deposit and a confirmation text too.

Good things come to those who wait

Next, you will have to wait like a kid waiting for Christmas to come. Depending on stock allocation, this could be anywhere from a few weeks to a few months.

Feel free to give the friendly Tesla delivery team a call on a weekly basis if you've not heard anything and can't bear to wait in silence. However, one magical day you will receive a text informing you that a vehicle has been allocated to you and that there will be a number of steps to complete in your Tesla account online. Woot woot!

You'll then need to login to your Tesla account online, select a preferred delivery/collection date and time then complete the required steps in the account as best you can.

At this point, if you want you can ring Tesla and have them send you a text message with your VIN and new registration number (exciting!). If you really want to take it to the next level and keep tabs on your car, you can call Tesla and have them confirm which ship your car is being transported on so you can track its journey across the world!

FYI, you can choose to switch financing options during this time and you don't have to use Tesla's preferred finance provider (ALD Automotive at the time of writing). However, after comparing quotes from other lease providers, I felt that they were not cheap enough to warrant adding an additional middleman to this transaction. So, the rest of this article is based on my journey with ALD.

The next thing to do will be to get a full formal quotation from ALD sent from Tesla. You can request this via the phone or email. You can also reply/call with any variations/tweaks required.

Sidenote, at this point my order on the Tesla mobile app order disappeared (and it didn’t return until the day I collected the Tesla).

ALD Automotive excess mileage

As you might expect, there is an additional charge for excess mileage beyond the mileage you’ve selected. At the time of writing, this excess charge is 10.83p + VAT per mile. 

Conversely, I’d assumed that if you were under your selected mileage, then tough luck. However, (and I’m not sure how common this is) they actually rebate you for any unused mileage from your allowance at a rate of 8.12p a mile. As such, being spot-on with your mileage forecast isn’t as critical as I thought it was going to be. I only found this out when I got the final contract hire agreement from ALD (5 days before collection) and read the small print. Hopefully, this eases your concerns about picking an accurate annual mileage.

ALD Application

Once you’ve settled on your Mileage and term, tell Tesla you want to go ahead and they will email out a new ALD application form PDF. Complete it and send it back via email.

At this point, I had my fingers crossed awaiting their approval/rejection message. I waited 5 business days and hadn't heard anything so I gave Tesla a call. They checked on their system and they said they could see it was all approved. However, I never received a formal approval email from Tesla/ALD … but maybe you will.

Then the full contract hire agreement will be sent for electronic signature sent out a few days before collection. You will not need to print/sign/scan/email anything … it’s fully digital.

Once you’ve signed the contract hire agreement, you’re all set and you just need to wait until your collection/delivery date. 

I received a call from Tesla on the last working day prior to collection, just confirming that everything is okay. When I saw it was Tesla calling me, I was terrified that there was a problem with the car or they were postponing the collection for some reason, however it was all good.

Tesla Collection Day

I will have a separate post/video on collection day, so I’ll just keep the details relevant to the leasing/financials here.

With Tesla, you have a 14 day return period where you can return the car for any reason for a full refund. I’d expected that the lease deposit payment (12 months in advance in my case) would have been taken ahead of me driving the car away but this wasn’t the case. I drove away my £50,000+ Tesla having paid just the £100 deposit … which I still find odd!

Finally, just so you know …. after inspecting the car and signing it off, it took just 10 minutes for the car to show up in my mobile app.